ISSF WC: Junior men’s skeet team tops qualifying but no medals for India

Anish Bhanwala, Commonwealth Games gold-medallist, failed to reach the finals of men's 25m rapid fire pistol event.

Anish Bhanwala missed qualification by three points. (file photo)

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anish Bhanwala shot 581 and missed the rapid fire pistol final by three points in the 52nd World Shooting Championship in Changwon, Korea, on Monday.

The 15-year-old Anish, who had shot 289 in the first stage overnight, came up with 292 in the second stage, but it proved inadequate to catch one of the six spots in the final.

China won the gold and silver ahead of the defending champion Jean Quiquampoix of France, and another former World Champion Alexei Klimov of Russia.

The top four won the Olympic quota places for Tokyo 2020.

With only the quota places from men’s and women’s skeet to be identified, Russia (11) and China (10) led by capturing a lion’s share of the 52 Olympic quota places that have been won so far, including the ones in the mixed team events.

Host Korea (5) was the best among the others ahead of Slovakia (4) and Croatia (3).

Read: Indians fail to add medals on Day 10

India with two Olympic quota places won through Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela in women’s air rifle, so far was on par with Australia, Ukraine and Germany.

Eleven other countries, US, Belarus, Norway, France, Spain, Kuwait, Britain, Greece, Serbia, Chinese Taipei and Italy have won one quota place each.

In the junior men 50-metre rifle 3-position event, Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar made the final but placed fourth.

China was firmly on top of the table with 32 medals, including 14 gold and 12 silver, ahead of host Korea which had 28 medals including 10 each in gold and silver.

Russia was in the third place with 28 medals including eight gold and eight silver, ahead of fourth placed India which had 20 medals in all including seven gold and seven silver.

In junior men’s skeet, Gurnihal Singh Garcha was well placed at 73 out of 75 after three rounds, in the joint second place behind Petros Englezoudis of Cyprus.

Anant Jeet Singh Naruka (71) and Ayush Rudraraju (70) were also breathing down the neck of the leaders.

In women’s skeet, the Indian shooters had a tough time as Maheshwari Chauhan (65), Ganemat Sekhon (62) and Rashmmi Rathore (62) found themselves in the 43rd, 50th and 53rd positions out of 61 shooters, with two more rounds to go for the final.